The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Online computer-based services now commonly offer applications and services intended for access by large-format computers, such as desktop computers and laptop computers, as well as for small-format computers, such as mobile computing devices including tablet computers and smartphones. For example, a particular web-based application may offer a standard site or application intended for use with large-format computers and a mobile site or application intended for use with small-format computers. Since the graphical displays of small-format computers are necessarily smaller, having the server-side computer deliver or use the same graphical images for both the large-format site or app and the small-format site or app becomes problematic. For example, it may be impossible for a small-format computer to display the same graphical image as used in a large-format site or application without requiring the user to drag or scroll the display to see all parts of the image.
Some online services are owned and operated by a first party, provided for the benefit of a second party such as a consumer end user, and permit contribution of content by third parties such as property owners. In this context, the services may sometimes permit the third parties to provide graphical images of their own selection for the purpose of illustrating property available for booking, rental or sale. Often the third parties contribute images independently and asynchronously with respect to activities of the first party. As a result, some of the images that the third parties contribute may be unsuitable for use with different kinds of application delivery mechanisms. For example, the third parties might contribute images that are too large or sized improperly for unmodified use in the small-format or mobile version of a particular service or application. In addition, the third parties might contribute images that cannot be used in different areas, pages or screens generated by an app that require displaying the same substantive content of an image in a different size or resolution in different places.